


How Do I Ask This

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Series: Class 'Bonus Scenes' [3]
Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Canon Gay Relationship, Episode: s01e01 For Tonight We Might Die, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 16:32:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8453638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: Charlie walks home with Matteusz after the prom and then calls him when they're both safely home.





	

Leaving Coal Hill after prom, the Doctor, everything…it felt odd. Miss Quill was still cradling the smashed remains of her gun, April had her arms wrapped around herself, fingers playing nervously over her heart, and Charlie hadn’t let go of Matteusz’s hand once since they’d left. No one felt much like talking, not after all that they’d seen.

Charlie didn’t want to take Matteusz home because he knew what was waiting for him. It wasn’t fair to take him back when he’d left with only anger. He’d left after shouting to his parents and they shouted back, and when he left the house the only thing he’d done was kiss him. Charlie didn’t know much about Earth parenting, but he doubted Matteusz was looking forward to going back.

But Matteusz insisted, said his parents hadn’t kicked him out (‘yet’, he added, rather darkly), and therefore they would be expecting him back, no matter how much he might want to sleep at Charlie’s house instead. Which was something he did want, because Charlie had offered and he’d almost said yes. Almost. Charlie could tell that it was close, but he wasn’t going to go against his wishes.

Walking in the dark seemed scary after everything that had happened. It was irrational, but he was afraid of all these shadows even though the Shadowkin were gone. He couldn’t shake his fear of the dark no matter what he tried, and now it was back with a vengeance.

Matteusz stopped suddenly at the top of his road, looking down at his house. Charlie looked with him, seeing the resigned sadness in his eyes. “I should say goodbye here,” he said. “My parents would not be thrilled if they saw me kissing a boy again…”

“You can say that it didn’t work out if you want,” he said. He hadn’t spoken to Matteusz about whether this was the kind of thing he wanted to do again. A date without the Shadowkin, that was. He doubted Matteusz even liked him anymore. He’d said he didn’t mind about the alien thing, but he was sure that was a lie.

“But it did work out.” Matteusz managed a smile, and bent down to kiss him. April had wandered a few feet away to give them some privacy, but Miss Quill had not, and just let out a long, disapproving sigh. Charlie ignored her. “I will walk the rest of the way by myself…video call me when you get home. I promise to you I will still be awake.” 

Charlie smiled back and reached out for Matteusz’s hands. “I’ll talk to you then,” he said, and squeezed his hand gently. Matteusz’s smile got a little bit more genuine, though he still looked nervous. It felt wrong to see him this nervous about just going home after all he’d been through tonight.

“See you.” Matteusz looked down at their joined hands, reluctantly dropping them and kissing Charlie just one more time before jogging off down the road to his house. Charlie stayed and watched for a minute, hoping to see that he got in alright, but then Miss Quill cleared her throat loudly and they had to set off again to walk April home, too. 

 

-

 

Back at the flat, Charlie rushed upstairs as soon as he could so he could talk to Matteusz again. He wanted to ask him what he’d meant when he said that the date had worked out. He’d presumed it was a disaster. Rachel died, Ram fainted, and then he’d thrown up on Matteusz’s nice shoes. It didn’t seem like it had gone well at all.

He called Matteusz quickly, sat at his desk, and waited about twenty seconds before the call was picked up. From the looks of it, Matteusz was on his phone, in bed, and not wearing a shirt. Charlie had to fight to keep a blush off his cheeks, and even with all his effort he was pretty sure he failed. 

“A-are you okay?” He asked, trying to keep his eyes on Matteusz’s face and not the distraction of him being shirtless. He was really rather well built and he couldn’t stop himself appreciating it. “Were your parents angry?”

“They were already asleep when I got home,” Matteusz said, anger flashing in his eyes for a moment. “I had to find the spare key to let myself inside…” From the weary look on his face, Charlie guessed that the spare key hadn’t been terribly easy to find. “So I am okay. Just...tired.” 

“I’m tired too,” he said, still trying and failing at not looking at Matteusz’s chest. “I, um…” He didn’t know how to ask if Matteusz wanted to go on a date again, and even if he did know, he didn’t want to be rejected.

 

Apparently Matteusz knew both what he was going to ask and where he was looking, because he moved his phone a little lower to show off even more bare skin before he next spoke again. “Even if our date wasn’t perfect...you were.” He grinned, looking almost sheepish. “Was that too silly? I never know how much romantic sayings is acceptable.” 

Charlie felt his face flush more and he coughed to try and cover it. “I, um, you were perfect too.” Honestly, they’d barely done anything, and the actual prom had been full of nerves and then later disaster. He still felt a little sick at the memory of what had happened.

“You’re too kind.” Matteusz looked away for a moment, clearly trying to contain a smile. Charlie used the moment as an excuse to stare a little more unashamedly at his very attractive body. He hoped he was allowed to do things like that. He didn’t know human customs on how you looked at a partner (if they were partners, even).

“I, um, are you my- are we-” He didn’t know how to ask Matteusz if they were a thing. Partners, he thought they called it boyfriends here. He could surmise that much from what he’d studied about culture in adolescents in this country, but whether Matteusz wanted that was another matter.

“Am I your boyfriend?” Matteusz grinned again, and Charlie decided that was definitely his favourite smile. “If I did not like you, I would not be lying almost naked in bed so willingly in front of you.” He shifted his phone out a little more, and Charlie found himself blushing again, which actually made Matteusz laugh. Definitely his favourite sound. Matteusz was fast becoming his favourite person, full stop.

“Are you even- are you wearing underwear?” He had never experienced an encounter quite like this. It wasn’t at all how they did relationships in Rhodia. There was no skirting around what feelings or intentions were unless it was a purely political connection. Matteusz’s grin was his only response.

Charlie didn’t know how to respond to that, honestly. He opened his mouth, and closed it again, and tried fruitlessly to pretend like he wasn’t blushing horribly. Some part of him genuinely did want to see if Matteusz was wearing any clothes, but a more sensible part of him told him that he should definitely go to bed before this conversation took a very different turn that probably wasn’t appropriate for a night where such bad things had happened earlier. 

“Do you want to, um, go out together another time? No aliens,” he said, and then he realised his mistake as Matteusz spluttered. “Except me.” It was strange to think of himself as an alien to these people. He didn’t fit in, of course, but when it came down to the people he wasn’t sure they were all that different.

“That sounds perfect,” Matteusz said. “Are we going to sleep, or…?” He inched the camera on his phone down a tiny bit lower, and Charlie coughed loudly, feeling almost like he should be covering his eyes. 

“We need to go to sleep,” he said firmly. Matteusz laughed again, and Charlie was reminded why he’d liked him so much in the first place. His cheer and his smiles and his sense of humour that just made sense. “Goodnight, Matteusz.”

“Goodnight,” he said, smiling at Charlie once more before he ended the call. Charlie just smiled at the blank screen for a few moments, still a little bit unable to believe that someone like Matteusz actually liked him, and wanted to see him again. He shook his head slightly, still smiling, and stood up to go make himself a hot drink before bed. For as disastrous as the night had been, at least now he had one happy thing to cling to.


End file.
